Research School Network: Practice and perseverance strategies to build confidence within a subject. In this Blog Kelly Duke, considers practice and perseverance strategies to build confidence within a subject.

In this Blog Kelly Duke, North Yorkshire Coast Research School – Maths Specialist (Secondary) considers practice and perseverance strategies to build confidence within a subject.

The familiar exchange between students and teachers whereby patience, practice and perseverance plus a myriad of other teaching strategies must come into use. The difficulties either surrounding homework or classwork can feel frequent for some students in particular. Convincing students to put time into the processes which may support them can be tricky given;

​“Students don’t want to monitor and reflect; they just want to solve the problem.”

What Works Clearinghouse (2012).

As a maths teacher, I am extremely conscious of building confidence within the subject. I treat every troubled exchange with a student seriously, knowing how I support them may inform how they react to similar situations in the future. As we move into exam season we also see a heightened level of anxiety and pressure for those sitting exams in the summer. I am also mindful of maths anxiety and supporting students who show signs of this.

Where do we start?
How we overcome these exchanges and develop coping strategies matters hugely in these scenarios. Students are very rarely stuck on ​“all of it” despite their claims, but as a teacher I need to build resilience in my students. We can start to look at evidence which may support the learner but also me as a teacher;

Developing students independence and motivation highlights how a teacher may model metacognition through a series of questions:

What is the problem asking?
Have I ever seen a mathematical problem like this before?
Could I represent the problem with a diagram or graph?
Does my answer make sense?
Do I need help or more information to solve this problem?

(EEF Improving Mathematics in Key Stages Two and Three Guidance Report)

This set of questions is an excellent starting place for eliminating the ​“I can’t do it” mode of thinking. The modelling may be repeated over time.

Metacognition strategies in this problematic exchange certainly provide teachers with a guide on how to support students. Metacognition is rated by the EEF Teacher Toolkit as having a very high impact.

​“We know that learners develop some metacognition naturally, and most teachers support metacognition in their teaching without realising it.” (Kathryn Kilbride https://researchschool.org.uk/news/blog-metacognition )

The best teaching of metacognition, suggested by evidence, is through subject content. Further details of explicit teaching of metacognitive strategies can be found in the EEF report ​‘Metacognition and self-regulated learning’ specifically the seven-step model. The model is shown here to illustrate teacher input steadily decreasing to allow independent practice as scaffolding is removed.

What does this look like in the classroom?
There are two notable aspects of learning I ask my students to undertake. One is to take on the role of a detective, thus encouraging them to search for information and write down anything they do know. This approach is supported by the EEF Improving Mathematics in Key Stages Two and Three report which states when problem solving, pupils should be taught to ​“interrogate and use their existing mathematical knowledge to solve problems.” (pg 15)

The other explicitly taught element in my classes is where students engage their ​“sensible” brain. Highlighted by the EEF metacognition modelling question ​‘Does it make sense?’ From my own experience, students frequently become so engrossed in the method they are following that the other sensible aspects of their judgement are put to one side. I find this of even more importance for GCSE students whereby their sensible brain can easily be overridden in exam conditions.

Moving forward
As a classroom practitioner my students know our exchange will go;

“I can’t do it”

​“Which bit?”

​“All of it.”

“Show me a question you are stuck on.”

Moving the ownership back onto the student to identify where they are struggling is the beginning of a self-regulated learner. We can then offer support through metacognitive strategies before gradually removing the scaffolding.

Once we get to this point we can congratulate ourselves on producing more effective leaners and then look forward to starting all over again in September.